Medicine: Pep-Pill Poisoning

The use by college students of a new, powerful but poisonous brain stimulant called
Benzedrine last week kept college directors of health in dithers of worry. Cases of
over-dosage have been uncovered at the Universities of Minnesota,
Wisconsin and Chicago. Elsewhere students who, while cramming for
final examinations, collapse, faint, develop insomnia, or show a slowed
pulse rate are under suspicion of using the substance. They call it
"pepper-up," "pep pills."

Swallowed as a tablet or inhaled as a gas, Benzedrine at first shrinks
mucous membranes, raises blood pressure, quickens the heart, sharpens...